UN tribunal for genocide case

2005-09-24 13:37

Arusha - A former Rwandan media employee arrested last week on suspicion of participating in Rwanda's 1994 genocide was transferred on Friday to the UN-backed tribunal trying suspects in massacres, the court said.

It said Joseph Serugendo, the former technical director of Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM) who was detained in Gabon on September 16, arrived at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) detention facility in Tanzania, where he would stand trial.

Serugendo, 52, an alleged founding member of the extremist Hutu Interahamwe militia, faced charges relating to his suspected involvement in the genocide in which some 800 000 people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were slaughtered.

Incitement to commit genocide

The ICTR said: "He is charged with five counts of conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and persecution as a crime against humanity."

The RTLM played a prominent role in the massacres of mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus notably by broadcasting messages calling on Hutu militia to kill Tutsis.

Serugendo allegedly co-planned the killings with the genocide's foremost suspect, Felicien Kabuga, who was still at large.

On Thursday, the tribunal said it had issued all indictments for suspects it so far intends to try, although Kabuga and 13 others had yet to be arrested.

Created by the United Nations in 1994 to try the main suspects in the 100-day genocide, the ICTR had thus far convicted 22 suspects and acquitted three.

- AFP